A Midnight Clear
by Julianna Calavicci
Summary: A Christmas story


_Author's Notes: To my loyal readers, I apologize for the delay on the next chapter of Dreams and Nightmares. I have a plot bunny that refuses to eat its vegetables. I think I may have to force feed it in order to get the next chapter done. Be patient, though, dear reader. The next chapter is coming! I promise!_

_Meantime, another plot bunny needed to be fed before it was too late._

_To all my fellow Whovians, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!_

_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_

**A Midnight Clear**

The grinding mechanical sound broke through the peaceful night, sending sheep fleeing, startled from their quiet meanderings. Where the sheep had been grazing, a very distinctive blue police box phased in and out of sight before suddenly becoming solid. A moment later, the door to the blue box opened and a pale, thin face peered out with interest. The curiosity on the face changed to a distinctive frown as its owner stepped out into the pasture, looking around with increasing confusion.

"This isn't Paris!" the Doctor stated to himself. "Doesn't even look like France!" He sighed with obvious frustration. "I really have to take a look at the directional locator. Well…" he started, turning to close the door behind him. "As the saying goes, when in… wherever I am…" He let the sentence drop as he picked a direction and started to walk through the pasture, wondering where and when he had found himself.

It was a good hour or so before he found the small village. Judging from the buildings there and the clothing of the few people he came across, he concluded that he was on Earth, somewhere in the Middle East, and sometime around the 1st century. That thought brought a smile to his face. He'd never been to 1st century Earth and the prospect of spending a short time there was rather attractive to him. After all, it was Earth history in the making.

As he made his way further into the village, however, he was immediately blinded by a brilliant white light, the sight of which caused him to drop on his backside. He had never seen anything even similar before in all his lives. Not even Rose, when she had looked into the heart of the TARDIS, had been this dazzling.

Slowly standing up, he eased his way towards the light, wondering why there wasn't a single person around to even slightly question it. After all, the light was turning the night into day. But as he came closer to it, he realized the truth. No one else could see the light, only he with his time-sensitive eyes could.

He found the source of the white light to be a stable. But what was even more startling was that the light emanated from a small newborn being held by his mother. The Doctor couldn't help but stare at the sight. The mother didn't seem to notice the light anymore than the father did. Well, the Doctor assumed that the man kneeling beside the mother, giving her physical and moral support, was the father.

If the Doctor had thought that things could get any stranger, he was wrong. Even as he stared at the sight in awe, the newborn child turned his head and looked directly at him. The Doctor knew a thing or two about newborns, having had a child of his own and he knew even a Gallifreyan child wasn't capable of distinguishing specific shapes enough to focus the way this human child was.

'Time Lord.' The voice that filled the Doctor's head was gentle and loving but also strong and frightening. The Doctor found himself pressed against a rock wall, breathing hard with growing trepidation. Whatever that child was, he was most definitely not human. No human at that age could project their thoughts into the mind of a Time Lord.

'What are you?' the Doctor demanded. If he needed to once again take up arms in defense of his favorite species, he needed to know what he was up against.

'Fear not, Time Lord. I am here to save mankind, not to destroy them.'

'Save them? Saved from what?'

'From sin. From death. From the hand of the fallen angel. You must return to your TARDIS, my child. You do not belong here.' The child smiled gently, reassuring the Doctor.

The Doctor stared at the child for a long moment, unable to move though every nerve in his body was telling him to run for the safety of his timeship. Everything about this child was… well, magnificent just wasn't strong enough but the Doctor didn't know what word did fit. He could hear the voice whispering in his mind, terrifying him and soothing him at the same time.

Then he heard it. The word that he hadn't heard in centuries. Just one simple word, so unique to his own species but so personally important to him. The one word that he kept hidden deep so that no one could find it. The word that was his and his alone, given to him by a human female on a now dead world.

It was his own name, the name his human mother had given him at birth.

Who was this child who knew his name, a name he hadn't even thought of since he became a Time Lord?

"Who are you?" the Last of the Time Lords whispered, the first words to actually leave his lips since he saw the brilliance now before him.

'You know me, though you deny my existence,' the voice told him. 'I know you, my child. I know all that you have done. So much good and yet so much harm. You make difficult decisions for the entire universe. And you bear the guilt of it all on your soul.'

There was a long pause, making the Doctor wonder what punishment this creature had to bestow upon him. He knew in his hearts that he deserved whatever retribution this being had for him. And he would accept it willingly. He didn't, though, expect the next words that filled his mind, words he himself had spoken to others.

'I forgive you.'

A sob escaped the Doctor's throat as he dropped to his knees. He felt the tears slowly making tracks down his face as he watched the brilliant light soften almost to nothing, though traces of it still flittered around the child, who now seemed like any normal human newborn, fussing slightly until he was more comfortable in the young woman's gentle arms.

With the light now diminished enough for him to see, the Doctor could now also see a gentle light surrounding both the husband and the wife but not around the people who went into the stable to look upon the child with such reverence as to only awe the Doctor into silence. He looked up into the sky and saw the star literally right above the stable, shining too brightly in the night sky to be normal.

Slowly, silently, the Doctor stood and walked in the same direction he had come, completely ignored by all as he returned to the TARDIS. He felt suddenly exhausted but light-hearted, as if he'd been carrying something extremely heavy for days and it was now gone. The guilt he'd felt since the Last Great Time War was gone. In fact, he didn't feel any guilt for any of his previous actions. All he felt was an intense and all-encompassing sense of peace he couldn't remember ever feeling.

Walking into the TARDIS, with a smile on his face, he went to the console and raised his hands to change the time coordinates. He froze, however, when he saw where and when the TARDIS had taken him.

_Bethlehem, Galilee, __Judea, 4 B.C._

"Impossible," he whispered under his breath. "Yes, he existed but he's not… He's…" His denial froze in his throat. He swallowed slightly and then took a deep breath. "Well… whoever you were," he said, still not quite believing what his hearts knew was true and yet looking towards the sky. "Thank you."

Programming the coordinates for his next destination into the console, he sent the TARDIS into the time vortex towards the next adventure.


End file.
